ICE agents to join TSA at airport checkpoints
Officials said the goal was to free up more TSA agents for security screenings
What happened
President Donald Trump and White House border czar Tom Homan on Sunday said immigration agents would be deployed at some U.S. airports starting this week to help the Transportation Security Administration move travelers through security lines faster. Homan said his goal was to free up trained TSA agents. Trump on Saturday portrayed the move as a way to pressure Democrats to stop blocking Homeland Security Department funding to force a change in ICE tactics. TSA agents, like most DHS employees, have been working without pay since Feb. 14. ICE agents are being paid through a different DHS account.
Who said what
Until Democrats agree to fund DHS, ICE agents would “do Security like no one has ever seen before, including the immediate arrest of all Illegal Immigrants,” Trump said on social media. His first posts on the deployment “came as a surprise to officials inside ICE and at DHS, who have spent the weekend trying to figure out how it could work,” The Wall Street Journal said, citing three people familiar with the matter. The officials also “expressed frustration with the plan,” saying it would “distract” from mass deportations and reduce “Republicans’ leverage in the funding fight.”
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told ABC News that “Democrats want to see long lines at airports as leverage,” and Trump was “trying to take that leverage away.” Senate Republicans on Saturday “rejected a motion by Democrats to take up legislation to fund TSA,” The Associated Press said. Trump has urged Republicans to reject any DHS funding deal with Democrats unless Congress passes an elections bill with stricter voting registration rules.
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What next?
The ICE deployment is “a work in progress,” but “we’ll have a plan by the end of today,” Homan told CNN on Sunday, and “we will be at airports tomorrow, helping TSA.”
